- Sequoia’s Michael Moritz interviews Marc Andreesen (founder Netscape & Opsware, co-founder Ning), David Filo (co-founder Yahoo), and Chad Hurley (co-founder YouTube);

- Jason Calacanis moderates discussion with Jay Adelson (Digg), David Sacks (Geni), Roelof Botha (Sequoia), Sumant Mandal (Clearstone), George Zachery (CRV), Hank Barry (Howard Rice), and Jeff Clavier (SoftTechVC);

- Heather Harde moderates discussion with Michael Montgomery (Montgomery & Co.), Craig Walker (GrandCentral/Google), Raj Kapoor (Mayfield), Ted Wang (Fenwick), Michael Marquez (CBS) and Evan Williams (Obvious and Twitter).

Instead of simply transcribing the panels, I put my pen down, closed my laptop and just listened. I asked a few questions, naturally… The following are all heavily paraphrased, but important nuggets of wisdom from some of the most influential and successful figures of the first 10 years of the World Wide Web.

1. If you are going to start a company, start with a big, crazy and ambitious goal (Marc Andreessen).

2. Regardless of what you are doing, financing options exist. In fact, there are people whose sole job is to identify people and projects and invest in them (Marc Andreessen).

3. When you are building a company, don’t move necessarily to where the financiers are, go where you can find talent (David Sacks). In fact, don’t do anything you would not otherwise do (Sumant Mandel).

4. No matter what your strategy is, keep your costs down (Chad Hurley) and never hire ahead of needs (Marc Andreessen).

5. Throughout your business’ growth, don’t manage with an exit strategy in mind (Michael Montgomery), but don’t make decisions that will put you at a disadvantage, either, like giving up exclusive clauses for sectors or geographical locations. In other words, think of repercussions (Ted Wang).

6. It’s very easy to think of short-term gains and advantages for making a decision, always pause and think of the long-term impact of any one decision (David Filo).

7. No one can really advise you on the best decision to make in the sell vs. build dilemma, it’s your asset, do what you want to do, it’s your right (Ron Conway).

8. Oftentimes, a business development inquiry or relationships can grow into a corporate development deal (Mike Marquez).

9. The VC community is torn on the issue of founder’s liquidity, it’s a case by case decision, really… and as an entrepreneur, you are not alone in the need to take some chips off the table in exchange to continue building the company (Raj Kapoor).

10. Never underestimate the importance of reaching out to financiers via professional services firm, be it lawyers or accountants (Hank Berry).

11. All factors being equal, you will get a better deal from investors that have already worked with you (George Zachery, David Sacks).

12. An entrepreneur should not kid himself: once you sell the company, you probably won’t end up staying at the new company forever… after all, the kind of person that is happy at a large company is not the kind of person that starts one (Evan Williams).

13. In the case of small companies selling, valuation boils down to two things: what will it take for you to sell and can the buyer justify the deal (Evan Williams).

14. Major variable in M&A is the balance between demand and supply and competitive process (Michael Montgomery).

15. You always need a good lawyer who’s done deals, but you don’t always need an investment banker (Ted Wang, Michael Montgomery).

16. All factors being equal, avoid earn-out’s in sales (Michael Montgomery). They create too rigid of a framework afterwards (Mike Marquez). But, they can be amended or scrapped afterwards if both parties agree (Michael Montgomery).

Enjoy. In case you are wondering, the tip #7, from Ron Conway, was a question I asked him at the cocktail, as he was a judge and not part of the panels…